Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
By the time I got home and through my front door, the pain was washing over me in waves and I could feel the tears pooling in my eyes.
I spent the next hour in the foyer, sitting on the bench, as I tried to gather the strength I’d need to move to the kitchen so I could take a pain pill.
At least I’d thought ahead and had the hospital fill it for me.
Thank God.
The thought of doing anything other than lying there on the foyer bench was a foreign phenomenon to me. I decided that I’d just lay there for a little bit until the pain eased enough for me to make my way to the kitchen.
Once it kicked it, well, then I’d attempt to make it up the stairs.
I slowly laid myself down, one millimeter at a time until I was fully on my back, closed my eyes, and prayed for the pain to calm.
Chapter 12
Live slow, die whenever.
-Tattoo
Dante
Later that afternoon
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She was released earlier this afternoon, about an hour ago, actually,” the nurse who’d taken my call replied. “Did she not tell you?”
No, she didn’t tell me. Otherwise, I likely would’ve been there to pick her up, you dumbass!
Instead of saying what I was thinking aloud, I thanked her and hung up.
Then I looked over at Mary. “You want to go for a ride?”
Mary was always up for a ride.
Her smile told me so.
Forty-five minutes later I arrived in front of her house to find her car in her driveway, Drake’s car behind it and him waiting at the front door.
I drove on past her house and circled around the back side of the neighborhood, coming up the back alleyway like I had the last time Drake had been in her driveway.
Mary was sound asleep as I pulled her out of her seat, and she didn’t wake but for a moment as I readjusted her onto my shoulder.
I looked at the old house that belonged to Cobie and studied the rocks outside.
Kicking over the closest ones with my foot, I was disappointed to find there wasn’t a key like there’d been the last time.
I smiled. Good girl.
The next place I checked was under the mat, then the eave above the door.
No key.
I tried the door handle.
Locked.
Shit.
My eyes trailed over to the window directly next to the door, and on a whim, I tried it.
Stuck.
The window opened a millimeter and screeched to a halt. Shit.
Doing this one handed also wasn’t helping. But, with a little determination and strength, I was able to shimmy the window open far enough to reach my hand around for the doorknob.
I’d have to rectify that problem once I got inside. I was sure since the thing was barely moving that she thought it was safe to leave it alone, but it wasn’t.
After popping the lock on the door from the inside, I opened it from the outside and walked in.
The kitchen I walked into was stifling.
It felt hotter inside than it was outside.
I frowned and closed the door behind me, locking it moments after that.
Drake was still knocking on the front door, but I ignored it as I made my way through the kitchen.
That’d been as far as I’d gotten the last time I was here, so I was a little surprised when it spat me out into a formal dining room, followed next by what I assumed was the living room.
The wood on the floor creaked underneath my feet, groaning every now and then when I stepped on a particularly weak piece.
Passing by a couch that looked to be one of the most comfortable I’d ever seen, I kicked the footrest up and laid the chair back, depositing Mary. Once she was safely on the couch, I snatched the old quilt off the back of the couch and covered her up with it. But only partially. With it being as hot in here as it was, she’d kick it off if it was covering her too much.
She was like me in that way. I always hated to be hot when I was sleeping. It was the best way to ensure that the sleep would be the worst I’d ever had.
Then again, I’d found something that caused me to sleep even less than being hot did…but I couldn’t find a way to fix a broken heart.
I hadn’t slept much since the accident. Maybe, if I was lucky, a couple hours a night here and there.
Now I lived off of maybe two or three hours, and I was lucky if I got that.
The knock at the front door started up again, and I wanted nothing more than to yank the door open and tell the stupid man to fuck off.
If she hadn’t answered it by now, she wasn’t going to.
The knocking had me walking toward the front door instead of upstairs as I’d intended, and I froze when the door came into touching distance.